Simply put, a project meeting takes place to make decisions about the project. It's different from the regularly scheduled status meeting we discussed in Chapter 2, Regularly Scheduled Status Updates, for three reasons:
Project meetings have one focus—the project. Status meetings can involve multiple subjects, including projects.
Project meetings are about accomplishing the project. As such, they involve making decisions to move the project forward. Status meetings are about sharing valuable information. Both are important but not the same.
Project meetings should only have a life within the context of the project. Once the project is over, the project meetings should end.
The first key to a successful project meeting is having a well-defined scope. In defining the project scope, Wikipedia draws an interesting distinction between two variables in a project: the work and the outcomes. They define the work tasks as the project scope and the deliverables or outcomes...